The prevalence of cable and fiber is ever increasing as consumers desire ever increasing amount of bandwidth to receive content (e.g., network data) and communicate, e.g., via a telephone. One aspect of cable management and maintenance of a cable system is managing information regarding the numerous devices, network elements and equipment used in a telecommunications infrastructure. Traditionally designations of the interconnections of various equipment and components within a telecommunication network have been maintained on printed grids or labels provided with a piece of telecom equipment. Theses grids or labels are hand written and typically a technician setting up or maintaining a network must refer to a grid for each component or cabinet. Traditionally, equipment support information is maintained separately from the equipment itself.
These hardcopy records of equipment interconnections and information may be difficult and inconvenient to use. Additionally, maintaining the information for an entire site in a telecommunications network infrastructure, such as a central office, may involve tediously updating the designation labels at each of the individual cabinets, panels, components and so forth. Further, maintaining hard copies of product literature regarding the installation, operation, and configuration of telecommunications cabinets, components, equipment, and devices takes up valuable real estate in a centralized equipment location which might otherwise be available for additional telecom equipment. Costs such as rental, fees, operating cost, taxes, and material cost are driven upward as the space necessary to house the equipment used within a telecommunications network increases.
Thus, improving the density of equipment installable at a site and minimizing the cost of telecom infrastructure is an ever present goal in the telecommunication industry which may be frustrated by the traditional designation and information management methods.